Railway-traffic-controlling apparatus



l Sept. 3,1929. P. P. s'roKER 1,727,183'

RAILWAY TRAFFIC coNTRoLLING APPARATUS @www Patented Sept. 3, 1929.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE'.

PAUL P. STOKER, OF WILKINSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO THE UNION SWITCH 6c SIGNAL COMPANY, OF SWISSVALE, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

RAILWAY-TRAFFIG-CON'IROLLING APPARATUS.

Application led April 17, 1928.

My invention relates to railway tratlic controlling apparatus, and particularlyto apparatus ot the type comprising a "coding device located at a central station, such as a despatchers office, for delivering control codes to a pair of line wires for the control of governing devices located at points remote from the despat'chers ofiice, and which devices in turn control the supply of indication codes lo to said line wires for the actuation of indication means in the despatchers office.

One system ot apparatus operating in the manner described is disclosed and claimed in an application for Letters Patent of the l5 United States, Serial No. 254,68-t, filed February 16, 1928, by Clarence S. Snavely, for railway tratiic controlling apparatus, and my present invention relates to an improvement on a portion of the apparat-us disclosed in said application.

I will describe one form of apparatus embodying my invention, and will then point out the novel 'features thereof in the claim.

The accompanying drawing is a diagrammatic View showing one form of railway traftic controllingapparatus embodying my invention.

Referring to the drawing, the reference character AA designates a coding device loo cated at a train despatchers otlice and arranged at times to supply control codes to a pair ol' line wires 66 and G6m 'for the control of tratc governing devices located at points remote from the despatchers ottice and not shown in the drawing. The coding device AA- is controlled in part by three manually operable keys K1, K2 and K3, arranged when operated to connect terminal B of a source ot energy not shown in the drawing with terminals l, 2 or 3, respectively, of the coding device.

The details of the coding device AA are omitted from the drawingl Jfor the sake of sin'iplicity, but these details are completely disclosed in the Snavely application identitied above, it being sufficient for present purposes to state that `when key K2 is operated, the coding device delivers to line wires 66 and 66, a control code which clears certain signals at a remote point; when key K3 is operated certain other signals at said point are cleared; and when key K1 is operated all signals at said point are restored to the stop position..

Serial No. 270,619.

Located also at the despatchers office are two select-ors S3 and S10, each comprising a contact which is closed for a brief interval when the Winding of the selector is supplied with a predetermined indication code. The selectors S9 and S10 are supplied with energy from a battery gA under the control of contact 139 of a relay EA which faithfully follows the impulses of indication codes supplied to the line wires.

rPhe selectors S3 and S10 are responsive to the condition of the track circuit associated with the signals governed by keys K1, K2 and K3, selector S10 being operated to close its contact when a train enters this section, and selector' S3 being operated to close its contact when the train leaves the track section, as described in the Snavely application ret'erred t-o hereinbetore. I/Vhen selector S9 is operated, current is supplied to the left-hand winding of a relay U from terminals B and C to move armature 190 to a left-hand position in which it is illustrated in the drawing. l/Vhen the armature occupies this position, lamp 192 is lightedto indicate to the despatcher that the section through which traftic is governed by the signals controlled by keys K1, K2 and K3 is unoccupied. When selector Sl" is operated, however, current is supplied to the right-hand winding of relay U, armature 190 is swung to the right and lamp 191 is lighted to indicate that the section is occupied by a tra-in.

In systems of the type here involved it is usual to control the signals associated with a section of track in such manner that when a train occupies the section all signals will indicate stop, but that when the train leaves the section, any signal or signals which were cleared before the train entered the section will return to the proceed position. This is usually called semi-automatic control. It is sometimes desirable, however, to introduce what is known as stick control of such signals. This is accomplished by arranging the signal control so that after a train enters and leaves a section, the signals will remain at stop until the despatcher takes suitable steps to again clear a signal.

In order to provide for stick control of the signals controlled by keys K1, K2 and K3, in the apparatus here shown I havewpifovided a ganan.A operable push atten Y which is arranged when closed to connect the contact of selector S10 in parallel with key K1.

In explaining the operation of the appa ratus, I will assume that push button Y is closed and `that the despatcher has operated 'one of the keys K2 or K3 to clear a signal. If, now, a train enters the track section associated with such signal, an indication code Will be delivered to the line Wires 66 and 66 which operates selector S10. TWhen the conc tact of this selector closes relay U is reversed,

of course, but in addition, terminal B is connected through the contact of selector S10, push button Y and Wire 80, with terminal l of coding device AA. As a result the device AA supplies to the line Wires the control code Which restores the signals to stop, and after the train leaves the section all signals remain in the stop position.

It Will be seen, therefore, that by the use of apparatus embodying` my invention, either semi-automatic control or stick control of the signals shown in the Snavely application may be obtained7 and that these desirable results are accomplished with the addition of comparatively little apparatus in the despatchers oiiice only7 and Without aiiecting the operation of the remainder of the apparatus.

Although I have herein shown and de` scribed only one forni of railway traiiic controlling apparatus embodying my invention, it is understood that various changes and modifications may be made 'therein Within the scope of the appended claim Without de parting from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having thus described myinvention7 what I claim is:

In combination7 a pair of line Wires at times supplied with an indication code, a coding device for at times supplying` a control code to said line Wires, a manually operable key for controlling said coding device, a selector responsive to said indication code and comprising a contact, and manually controlled means for at times connecting the contact oisaid selector in parallel with said key.

In testimony whereof I aflix' my signature.

PAUL r. s'frorinn. 

